Kristin Briney

Data

These make me want to get back into cross stitch.

Attending Axe-Con this week, a great virtual conference about tech accessibility. It starts early on the west coast, meaning that my kid got to watch Haben Girma’s keynote with me over breakfast. She was such a good speaker that even my 10-year old was interested!

Why every scientist needs a librarian Librarians can be key research partners who help to scour the literature, manage data and make science open.

“Librarians like to say that an hour in the library is worth a month in the laboratory, quips @kbriney.bsky.social “

Featuring quotes from many more #datalibs as well!

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

I'm really looking forward to my favorite conference of the year. It's virtual and inexpensive, so if you're interested in research data management and sharing, you should definitely attend!

The recording of my "Accessible Data for Everyone" workshop is now available for anyone who wasn't able to attend: doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

Happy Love Data Week!

My webinar today was about the Data Departure Checklist authors.library.caltech.edu/records/kynw... that @kbriney.bsky.social and I created. It's a customizable word document to help you offload remembering what all you need to get back from a research team colleague📚

I agree that it's not bad to learn and there are tools available. It's just a matter trying to convince researchers that it's worth hopping over that hurdle.

Luckily markdown is a fairly easy language to learn, and there many tool options, but it's definitely not the low barrier to entry that opening a TXT file is.

Really appreciate this thought provoking post!

One last thing is this great research by Koesten, et al., which found that README files with more words, more headings, and more links correlated with greater data reuse: doi.org/10.1016/j.pa...

Many features help not only with reusability but also accessibility, but are not available in TXT files.

Short answer: I think Markdown has potential as it's an open file type but supports basic formatting. The downside is that you have to learn Markdown and need a tool to render it.

Mainly, I think there is a bigger discussion we need to have around accessibility and reusability in #OpenData.

This #LoveDataWeek, I'm thinking about making our shared data more accessible. This involves rethinking the README.txt as the default recommended documentation file.

Is there a better file format that .txt? I've written up a few thoughts: dataabinitio.com?p=1235

I love this. I would feel safer at events if this happened regularly.

Twin Cities tow truck driver returns abandoned vehicles to families after ICE arrests Juan Leon sends a "chase" car to check out where abandoned vehicles are located and arranges discreet drop-offs. Since late December, he estimated they have dropped off 250 cars.

ICE has grabbed so many people from their vehicles that there are abandoned cars across Minnesota.

This tow truck driver returns the cars for free as a public service, and he’s been getting death threats.

They hate the helpers.

Which is why must keep helping.

I’m sharing this video again because people don’t really get what these data centers and ai are doing to our planet and our communities. Especially Black communities because they were strategically placed there.

I need you to listen to these people.
STOP USING AI. STOP SUPPORTING AI.

The chickens really make it.

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again.
#Pinks #ProudBlue

With sorrow, we announce the passing of FOBAZI M. ETTARH 1989 - 2026. Fobazi changed so many lives with her friendship, love, and brilliance. She was so loved, and leaves behind a powerful legacy. We thank Fobazi's community for their support over the last several months of her illness. A private burial will be held for family. We will be in touch with further information about a future Celebration of Life event, as well as ways to support Fobazi's family and legacy.

Well deserved recognition for this amazing project.

Anne Frank died of typhus at Bergen-Belsen

It’s pretty great

ICE are an existential threat to you to your family to your neighbors to your city to your state to your country.

On May 13, 1985 in Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania State Police dropped a bomb from a helicopter onto a Black neighborhood.

11 people were killed, 5 of whom were children.

As we see ICE terrorize communities, understand that saying “this isn’t who we are” is false.

“We are a Minneapolis 2nd grade Brownie Troop of 12 including trans and neurodiverse youth and 75% BIPOC kids. We want to go to summer camp and try horseback riding! During the current ICE occupation we need your support more than ever...”

And that’s how I ordered 4 boxes of thin mints.

Well this looks terrible. Don't even talk to me about AI anything until, at the very least, it stops hallucinating information and making up citations. Until then, this librarian is going to sort these tools into the slop pile.

"The number of downloads...surged by 529% after Mr. Mamdani’s news conference"

"there had been 3,000 people on a waiting list to access a limited number of e-book copies"

"2,000 people applied for a library card over the weekend, roughly twice as many as had applied by this time last year"

A win!

👀 Check out this timely article published in C&RL discussing "The Missing Path: Data Librarianship at Mid-Career". Thank you Megan Sapp-Nelson @sappnelson.bsky.social and Abigail Goben @hedgielib.bsky.social for sharing your insight into #datalibrarianship! 📝

crln.acrl.org/index.php/cr...

How To Help if You are Outside Minnesota Last edited January 22, 2026 I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this, you more or less understand the situation in Minnesota and I don’t have to explain it to you! That sa…

If you’re outside of Minnesota and you’re wondering how to help, this guide is excellent.

And seriously. Take down your Ring doorbell TODAY.

This. A handful of Americans have the power to stop this NOW, and they are refusing to.

they're executing moms and nurses in the street. they're using preschoolers as bait. they're stealing people's dads and grandmas and children. they're tear gassing babies. they're staking out schools. there is no remedy but abolition. any proposal that doesn't start there is an act of violence.